To Kathy, With Love
by MyLadyScribbler
Summary: After the operation at the Hotel Delphoria in Police Quest 1, Sonny decides to use the poker winnings to pay tribute to a girl who was practically a little sister to him.


Sonny Bonds cleaned Jessie Bains out of a thousand dollars during the poker game at the Hotel Delphoria. He suggests that the money be used to set up a memorial fund for Officer Jack Cobb's late daughter Kathy.

I grew up playing King's Quest, EcoQuest, Laura Bow and some of the other games in the Sierra fleet, but I'm starting to get into Police Quest a little bit.

Disclaimers, etc. I do not own any of the Police Quest characters; they are the property of Sierra On-Line, Jim Walls et al.

 **xPQ1x**

"Nine hundred ninety…a thousand!" Acting Detective Sonny Bonds finished counting the bills out onto Lt. James Morgan's desk.

Detective Keith Robinson whistled. "Dang, Sonny…remind me never to challenge you to a poker game! Unless you'd like to give me lessons?"

Sonny was back at the Lytton police headquarters, the morning after the big takedown at the Hotel Delphoria. He was handing over the $1,000 he'd won during the poker game with Frank "Magpie" Sloan, a.k.a. Jessie Bains.

Bains had taken a belly full of bullets when the police moved in, but he had regained consciousness on the stretcher long enough to snarl a few threats in Sonny's direction. "I'll kill you one of these days, pig!"

"That's fine work, Sonny," Lt. Morgan said warmly. "I'd gladly keep you here in Narcotics full-time, but Captain Hall's been after me. Sounds like he wants to poach you over to Homicide."

"Well, aren't you Mr. Popular," Keith smirked.

The door opened and Captain Fletcher Hall stuck his head in. "Robinson, I need you back at your desk, on the double," he said sternly.

"Yeah, yeah," Keith muttered as he followed Hall out the door.

Sonny headed back to the Narcotics detectives' office. Detective Laura Watts was in the middle of a phone call but she gave Sonny a thumbs-up as he came in.

Sonny sat down at his desk. Bains was behind bars, the top brass was happy, there was talk about him getting some big award from the mayor, Marie wanted a date…life was good!

Except…

Sonny couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness.

Bains had left a trail of destruction in his wake. So many kids in Lytton had had their lives and their health ruined from sampling Bains's wares.

Kathy…

Sonny had met the Cobb family for the first time about eight years before. He'd been a rookie cop on the Lytton force, fresh out of the police academy, and Jack, a seasoned veteran who'd taken him under his wing, had invited him to dinner at his house.

"Hi! I'm Kathy! What's your name!" Kathy, no more than seven or eight, had bounded into the room and thrown her arms around Sonny's waist.

"Um, I'm Sonny," he'd said, a little awkwardly.

"Kathy, sweetie, go help your mom," Jack said, prying his daughter off of Sonny. "She's our little ball of fire, Kathy is," he'd said with undisguised pride.

Before too long, Sonny and Kathy were thick as thieves, and Sonny loved giving her piggyback rides and taking her for ice cream after school.

So much had changed since then, especially in the last six months.

The drug use had turned Kathy, now sixteen, into a Jekyll and Hyde of her former self, subject to wild mood swings and earth-shattering rages. Formerly a bright student, she began skipping school and her grades took a nose-dive. And then, one last too-large dose of Bains's finest coke put her in the hospital in a coma from which she would never wake.

But Sonny remembered her as she'd once been: a bouncy, pigtailed girl who liked rollerblading, puppies and Prince.

Sonny started on the paperwork from the Delphoria operation, lost in thought as he did so. Something else was on his mind.

It wasn't enough just to get Bains behind bars.

Sonny finished the paperwork and headed back to Lt. Morgan's office.

"Here's the paperwork, Lt. Morgan," he said. "Also…can I talk to you about something?"

"Certainly, Sonny, have a seat." Lt. Morgan took the paperwork and gestured for Sonny to sit.

"It's…okay, it's about the money from the poker game." Sonny sat down in the chair across from the lieutenant's desk. "I know that the rule is that it gets tagged and goes into evidence. But…look, Bains has had his filthy hands all over it. And he got it all from seeing drugs sold to kids." There was a quaver in Sonny's voice. "Kids like Kathy Cobb."

Lt. Morgan nodded gravely. His eyes fell on one of the framed photos on his desk, one of him, his wife and their three elementary school-age children. "Good points one and all. So what'd you have in mind?"

"I was thinking…" Sonny paused. "I think the only thing to do is put the money back into the community. Use it to help start cleaning up the mess Bains made." Sonny leaned forward. "I'm going to talk to Jack. If he's okay with it, and if the department's okay, I want to use the money to do something in Kathy's memory. Set up a scholarship fund in her name at the high school or something."

"I think that'd be the perfect thing to do, Sonny. I'll clear it with top brass, while you call Jack and see if he'll give permission."

Sonny went back to his desk and dialed Jack's number.

"Cobb." Jack's voice was hoarse.

"Jack? It's Sonny…how are you doing?" Sonny asked.

There was a long pause on the other end. "Not so great. Just came from meeting with the funeral home. Picked out a purple coffin…Kathy always liked purple…" He choked and broke off.

Sonny waited patiently while Jack composed himself.

"I'm okay now," Jack said with an audible sniffle. "What's going on?"

"We got him," Sonny said. "We got Jessie Bains. The Death Angel. Right now he's handcuffed to a hospital bed. He's going away for a long time, Jack. He's never selling drugs to any kid in this town again."

"Well. That's…" Jack paused. "That's great, Sonny," he said flatly.

"He and his goons challenged me to a couple of big poker games while I was undercover, and I cleaned them out of about a thousand bucks," Sonny said. "I'll come straight to the point, Jack. I want to use the money to do something for Kathy."

There was another long silence on the phone.

"Sonny…you don't have to do this," Jack said.

"It's only fair," Sonny said firmly. "Kathy was like a little sister to me."

A few days later, Sonny and Lt. Morgan went over to Lytton High School for a meeting with the principal.

"Our kids haven't had much to look forward to lately," Anne Gleason, the principal, said. "This mess with the drugs really made things miserable around here. And Kathy was a really popular girl…the kids miss her a lot."

It would be a few weeks before the school district announced that the Katherine Elaine Cobb Memorial Scholarship would start accepting donations. But the school board gave their blessing for the scholarship and started working with the bank and the police on getting it set up.

"I'll meet you back at the station, Sonny," Lt. Morgan said as they left the school.

"Sure thing," Sonny said.

Lt. Morgan headed back in the direction of the station. Sonny turned to get into his own car.

As he did so, he could have sworn that he had seen a girl zipping down the street on a pair of purple rollerblades, headphones on, her pigtails whirling in the air as she did a couple of stunt jumps on her skates.

When Sonny turned to get another look, he didn't see any sign of the girl.

But he knew he hadn't been just seeing things.

 _Take care, Kathy,_ he thought, smiling.

 **xPQ1x**

Reviews welcome! (This is my first attempt at a PQ fanfic, so be kind.)


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